No unity found in Common Core

By The Daily News

Published: Monday, July 21, 2014 at 03:54 PM.

It wasn’t supposed to happen like this. The cream of America’s policy and education establishment came together with unprecedented swiftness to unify around the Common Core educational standards. It was expected that the American people — and elected officials — would follow suit.

Instead, Common Core has created yet another polarizing national battle, playing out on fronts spread across the country.

In North Carolina, the squabble has been typical of the chaos and division surrounding the program. In Raleigh, Gov. Pat McCrory was an early supporter of Common Core. Then he turned tepid about it. Meanwhile, the N.C. General Assembly voted this summer to end Common Core as it’s now in place and directed the state Board of Education to come up with alternative standards.

Common Core’s unelected faithful haven’t changed their minds. But they’ve failed to make the case to detractors that their grand plans amount to more than a costly new form of top-down uniformity — a whole country’s worth of busy work.

It’s a problem made crystal clear by the latest polling on the issue. A new Pew study reveals that even self-identified “business conservatives” oppose Common Core by more than 2-1.

According to Pew’s typology, business conservatives are exactly the kind of voter to whom Common Core was most forcefully pitched. They “share steadfast conservatives’ preference for limited government, but differ in their support for Wall Street and business, as well as immigration reform. And business conservatives are far more moderate on social issues than are steadfast conservatives.”

These were supposed to be Common Core’s own core — its central force of slam-dunk political supporters. In a full-page New York Times ad that ran in February 2013, the sales pitch began in earnest: 73 “business leaders,” largely CEOs of major corporations and organizations, threw their unqualified support behind Common Core.

It wasn’t supposed to happen like this. The cream of America’s policy and education establishment came together with unprecedented swiftness to unify around the Common Core educational standards. It was expected that the American people — and elected officials — would follow suit.

Instead, Common Core has created yet another polarizing national battle, playing out on fronts spread across the country.

In North Carolina, the squabble has been typical of the chaos and division surrounding the program. In Raleigh, Gov. Pat McCrory was an early supporter of Common Core. Then he turned tepid about it. Meanwhile, the N.C. General Assembly voted this summer to end Common Core as it’s now in place and directed the state Board of Education to come up with alternative standards.

Common Core’s unelected faithful haven’t changed their minds. But they’ve failed to make the case to detractors that their grand plans amount to more than a costly new form of top-down uniformity — a whole country’s worth of busy work.

It’s a problem made crystal clear by the latest polling on the issue. A new Pew study reveals that even self-identified “business conservatives” oppose Common Core by more than 2-1.

According to Pew’s typology, business conservatives are exactly the kind of voter to whom Common Core was most forcefully pitched. They “share steadfast conservatives’ preference for limited government, but differ in their support for Wall Street and business, as well as immigration reform. And business conservatives are far more moderate on social issues than are steadfast conservatives.”

These were supposed to be Common Core’s own core — its central force of slam-dunk political supporters. In a full-page New York Times ad that ran in February 2013, the sales pitch began in earnest: 73 “business leaders,” largely CEOs of major corporations and organizations, threw their unqualified support behind Common Core.

But the explanations for why it might be important were never adequately addressed for most Americans. Common Core’s avid supporters in the business community failed to realize that business conservatives still have a conservative attitude toward perceptions of social engineering by policymakers. They took it for granted that Common Core’s advantages to American business were self-evident.

To be sure, pro-business Republicans oftentimes accept a greater government role in society if it means more profit. Common Core’s advocates were thinking rationally when they presumed that their target market would accept a bigger federal footprint in education if they believed it was good enough for business.

But Common Core’s corporate backers didn’t convince them of that.

It’s a given that higher standards in public education is the goal for which all school systems should strive. But how to get there illustrates another in our nation’s great philosophical divides.